From: DEADHEAD@USIT.NET
Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2001 4:01 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Oppose FDA's New Regulations on Genetically Engineered Food
RANDYE and Ed SCHWARTZ and Gralla
339 Quiet Dr. NE
Check, VA 24072
DEADHEAD@USIT.NET
RE: Docket No. 00N-1396, and 00D-1598
Dear FDA,
I am outraged by your new policies on genetically engineered (GE)
foods. Despite overwhelming consumer demand, your agency still
fails to require safety testing and mandatory labeling for GE
foods. Your "notification" policy is an insult to consumers, and
irresponsibly ignores strong scientific evidence of numerous
potential health and environmental risks to GE foods. You should
be aware that these foods could be toxic, could cause allergic
responses, could have lower nutrition value, could compromise
immune responses in consumers, and could cause irreparable damage
to the environment.
I am also greatly opposed to your new "voluntary labeling"
policy, which denies consumers a basic right to know. Without
mandatory labeling, neither consumers nor health professionals
will know if an allergic or toxic reaction was the result of a
genetically engineered food. Consumers will also be deprived of
the critical knowledge they need to hold food producers liable
should any of these novel foods prove hazardous.
Your proposed rules ignore serious concerns, and appear to be a
decision made to convenience industry at the expense of public
health and the environment. I will not accept your attempt to
make me a guinea pig of these untested foods, and I trust you
will take my concern along with the thousands of others into
serious considera
RANDYE and Ed SCHWARTZ and Gralla